The truth is that everything about Kempes seemed to lead him to those last two weeks in June, where his six goals in the final stage of the tournament were to stamp his name in the history books forever.
Unlike most of his team-mates in the Argentinean national team, Kempes was born into a fairly privileged background, as his father was also a fairly successful professional footballer of his time, and encouraged Mario,junior to take up the game.
What also made Mario Kempes stand out were his striking good looks, tremendous physical prowess and the fact that he plied his trade outside of Argentina? When Coach César Luis Menotti was putting together his squad, it was reputed that he had problems with the idea of Kempes pulling on the blue and white soccer uniform of the national team for the finals, However Kempes's success with Spanish club Valencia could not be ignored, as he had been the leading score in the Spanish league for two consecutive seasons.
However as the World Cup progressed, it looked like Menotti's faith in Kempes might not been justified, as Argentina were struggling, Kempes was yet to hit the back of the nets, and the stares of the Generals of the controlling military junta were getting more and more hawk life.
Things seemed to be going from bad to worse when the highly- fancied Argentina's team only succeeded in finishing as runners-up in their group, forcing them to play out.
Of Buenos Aires, This meant that the generals had to travel to the Argentine team's new venue for the second phase matches in Rosario.
This might have been some act of fate, for this is the city where Mario Kempes career began to take off in the early 1970s.
And it was in Rosario that Kempes briefly donned the mantle of greatness.
In Argentina's next game he showed his scoring prowess, scoring two great goals to sink Poland.
In the next game, Argentina had to win by a four goal margin against Peru to reach the final, they did so in style winning 6-0 with Kempes leading his line like a master and scoring another two fine goals.
So it was back to Buenos Aries for Kempes and Argentina to meet the highly fancied Dutch team in the final.
Kempes by that time was unstoppable, scoring two goals in the final, and laying on a third for captain Betoni.
Mario Kempes's second goal was the one that won the final in extra time and was very typical of his style of play.
He picked up the ball from short pass from playmaker Osvaldo Ardiles outside the penalty area, and set off on a surging runs goalwards and sweeping defenders aside he rounded the Dutch goalkeeper and swept the ball into the net.
In the space of three games in ten days, Kempes had become a national hero.
Kempes went on to have a distinguished career with Valencia, where he helped them win the Spanish Cup in 1979 and the European Cup Winners Cup as well as the European Super Cup in 1980.
In all, Kempes made 247 appearances for Valencia scoring 146 goals in all competitions.
During his national career he won a total of 43 caps, scoring 20 goals including the famous six.
After hanging up his boots Kempes managed a few non-descript football teams in obscure countries and today earns his living as a football analyst and commentator.
But nothing can take away from Mario Kempes the fact that he won a World Cup almost on his own, in 1978,